by Matt Zambito

Oh, what a nudnik! Disease, You’re the forsaken 
Universe directly addressing our worst fears
by making them realized. As if dull drama, 
You’re the different but drab climaxes before
the same denouement. Plus, You’re the pathogen
assassinating the immunologist right before
they could discover cures to cases of rabies,
bad public busking, and depression. Disease, 
You win: we give in, okay? Until clichéd death 
do us part while You party as if plaguing pack
of rats, giddy and gleeful in a grocery, leaving
Your germy scourge all over the good grubs,
those stored in darkness and those in the light.

Matt Zambito is the author of The Fantastic Congress of Oddities, and two chapbooks, Guy Talk and Checks & Balances. New poems are forthcoming in Tampa Review, Slipstream, Hiram Poetry Review, Freshwater Literary Journal, Sierra Nevada Review, and elsewhere. Originally from Niagara Falls, he has lived in Ohio, Idaho, Washington, and New York, where he now resides with his rescue dog, Sadie. He can be found on Instagram @mattzambito.